Even though I had felt I could sleep for the whole day, I woke up in midday after all because my stomach asked for lunch. The rain had stopped and a rainbow appeared, making it a good time to have lunch. After having the proper lunch I decided to go to my working table and start making a new device. In the next three hours I finished repairing Time Remote Mark II and making a gun-shaped device I named Replicator. Its function was to make a perfect copy of any non-living thing it shot. While testing it, I set it into copy mode, aimed it towards Eagle Eye's satellite, and pulled the trigger. It shot a green laser, which hit the satellite. Then, I set it into paste mode and shot it towards the floor of my house. It shot a purple laser, which hit the floor and instantly materialized a perfect copy of the satellite. I took the satellite and tried using it like the real one. It worked well, implying that Replicator worked well too.

While I was having my joy of successfully making a new device, someone knocked on my door. I opened it and the guest turned out to be Strawberry. As she entered I, with intention of joking, aimed copy-mode Replicator at her. She was surprised seeing me aiming a gun at her.

"Whoa don't shoot, Blackberry! It's me, Strawberry Shortcake!" she said with a little fright, but I shot her anyway and the green laser hit her hat.

"Oh, sorry," I said, setting Replicator to paste mode.

"What was that? It's dangerous you know," she said as I shot her again. This time, I shot her hand and a copy of her hat materialized there.

"Replicator," I answered with smile. "You didn't think that I would make a dangerous thing for real, did you?"

As she examined the copy of her hat, she giggled and said "I knew you wouldn't, but you still scared me. You are always full of surprises with your things."

"Flattery will get you nowhere," I said with a giggle. "Anyway, what happened that you come here?"

Then, she told me about a new friend with the name Rainbow Sherbet living in a boat docked on Punch Bowl Pond. As she told me that, I looked towards Punch Bowl Pond visible from my window, and indeed there was a boat that had not been there before. She also told me that at the next day there would be a welcoming party at her house and she invited me to come.

"I see, thanks for inviting. I'll see if I can come tomorrow," I said, and she left.

Not long after that, someone knocked on my door again. However, this time the guest was Ginger Snap.

"Oh, hi Ginger. What happened that you come here?" I asked.

"Y'know. Tomorrow there will be a party to welcome a new friend. There will be tens and hundreds and thousands and dozens of cookies and cakes so I'm going to make an automatic cookie-icin' machine to help everyone out," she said.

"Dozens are less than hundreds and thousands. Keep going anyway," I remarked.

"Okie dokie. Well, I thought you could come and help me out on it. Will you?" she asked.

"Okay, I'll see what I can do. Shall we go right away?" I said.

"Definitely!" she answered and we went towards her cookie factory.

At first, I thought the work would be a piece of cake with the two of us together. However, apparently me and Ginger had different thoughts about the machine we were going to make, making the rest of the day spent mostly arguing on how the machine should be made. Some accidents happened making both of us covered in icings, and we had quite an amount of laughs together. We forgot about bedtime and continued working on the machine until we fell asleep inside the factory. When we woke up, it was already bright and Ginger panicked seeing that.

"Uh oh! It's almost time! And the machine is not finished yet! There's no way we can finish it in time! Nope, not at all!" she shouted.

"Hmm, I think you can go there and buy some time. I'll finish this meanwhile," I said.

"Really? Thanks a zillion! I'll be back in a flash! Yep, I sure will!" she said, leaving the factory soon after.

Surprisingly without Ginger the work was much faster and I didn't know why. I finished the machine in the next ten minutes, and right after that Ginger came back with sore face.

"The party's cancelled," she said.

"How come?" I asked, and she told me what Strawberry had told her. Peppermint didn't like the new friend for a reason she couldn't say, and she had told Strawberry about her feelings towards Rainbow, without realizing that the person in particular had been actually there as well and had heard everything.

"And so now the machine has no use. Nope, not at all," she said.

"We still can use it whenever there's another party in the future," I said. "You better go to Rainbow, she might needs some encouragement."

"How about you?" she asked.

"I'll go home first and change into cleaner clothes," I answered. "You better do the same too."

I then went home to change my clothes, which were full of pink icing all over them. Midway I thought about how Peppermint could do such thing. I knew she was not as nice as the others, but to drive a new friend away still didn't feel like her. I was sure there was something more, but no idea came to my mind.

After changing into clean clothes, I went to Punch Bowl Pond and saw Orange, Angel, Ginger, Blueberry, and a girl I had never seen before. The girl I assumed to be Rainbow seemed depressed while the others tried to cheer her up. I then approached them to ask about what had happened.

"Hi everyone," I greeted as I came closer. "What happened here?"

"Hi, Blackberry. Well, Rainbow taught us about a new game to play with ball, but Peppermint didn't like it and... well..." Blueberry answered.

"She said something bad again I assume?" I asked.

"Her last sentence was ``I'll come back when she's gone!`` when she left. It was bad, am I right? It made Rainbow sad, am I right again?" Ginger said.

"That's fine..." Rainbow said, still with depressed face.

"No it is not fine," Angel said.

"Strawberry is now talking with Peppermint again. I don't know if she will succeed this time..." Orange told me.

"It does not matter anymore," Rainbow said, walking to her boat.

"Rainbow..." Angel said, following her. But Orange stopped her.

"I think we have to leave her alone for now," Orange said, and we all left the place.

At home I thought about the new friend. There were things that indeed made her different than the others. First, she lived in a boat instead of static house. Second, she wore her belt tilted, which frankly felt strange for me. Third, her outfit was so colorful, which fit her name but still seemed strange in my eyes because other friends didn't have so many colors on them. However, I decided to put all those things aside because I would be no much different than Peppermint if I kept all those thoughts.

At the next day, early in the morning, Strawberry came to my house rushing.

She then quickly told me that Rainbow was going to leave Strawberryland forever on that day unless something was done quickly. So she had a plan to make a costume party with everyone.

"I want to have everyone wearing the same costume as Peppermint and act like her to let her know what will happen if everybody is like her," she said.

"I see, but that means I have to shoot her, and that won't be easy," I said.

"Please think of something, Blackberry. We need to have Rainbow stay, and this is the only way, not to mention that I already gave invitations to everyone," she said.

"Strawberry, this is not like you to rush on an unsure thing," I said, pausing for a brief moment. "Okay, I'll see what I can do."

I quickly tweaked Replicator a bit and also launched Eagle Eye towards Peppermint's house. In the monitor we saw which costume Peppermint was going to wear. I zoomed the camera to focus on the costume, and shot Replicator to the monitor. Then, I set it to paste mode and aimed it on the floor.

"Now cross your fingers, Strawberry..." I said as I shot the floor. Something materialized there and it turned out to be the costume we had wanted to copy.

"Great!" she shouted in joy.

I shot the floor a few more times so the amount of copy was enough for everyone else.

"Now I need to bring these to my home quickly. Thanks for your help, Blackberry," she said, taking all the costumes.

"Wait, I have something to bring you there in a flash," I said, taking Time Remote Mark II from my shelf. "Strawberryland! Strawberry Shortcake's house!"

A dimension door appeared. Strawberry recognized it as the same dimension door Ginger had used to help me, and jumped in happily. I followed her to make sure she wouldn't end up in the different Strawberryland like I had experienced. The door transported us into Strawberry's house, and because everyone else minus Peppermint were there waiting and asking about the costume party, I could rest assured that we were still in the same world.

"I'll go back home. I can't wear a girl costume right?" I said, and I re-entered the dimension door to go back home.

I then watched the costume party with Eagle Eye. Everyone had worn the costume and were waiting for Peppermint to come. Not long after, she came and was quite surprised seeing the costume of everybody else. Then everyone played their part well on how they should act, however Peppermint seemed to become more and more upset as time passed. (A.N. Now the fanfic will clash with the original story of the episode)

"Just what are you all doing?!" she shouted with anger, surprising everyone else. "Everybody wear the same costume as me, eat the same food and didn't leave any for me, all these craziness is really making me mad! You all are playing tricks to me!" she scolded, leaving everyone else speechless.

"Peppermint, I..." Strawberry started to speak.

"I know! This is your plan to change my mind about that kid, huh? Too bad, I'll never change my mind. She's different and weird, there's something wrong with her! And I won't feel any better if she's not gone yet! Screw everything, I'm out of here!" she said and left the place.

Her reaction which was not as planned left everybody else speechless. A huge depression covered everyone's face, and I could feel how broken their hearts were, especially Rainbow. I used Time Remote Mark II to quickly come to the place, with intention to give them some encouragement although I doubted if it would work. When I arrived there, everybody was still in big depression. I saw Rainbow removing her mask and approached Strawberry.

"It's okay, Strawberry. You did your best," she said to Strawberry, with her hand on the latter's shoulder.

"But Peppermint still..." Strawberry said with sad face.

"Never mind about that. It's fine for me. If I can't be friends with her then so be it, we can't force free-will," Rainbow said.

Sad but true, Rainbow was right in my opinion. There were things Peppermint and Rainbow had which didn't match well with each other, making friendship between them near to impossible. However, Strawberry had a thinking that if both Peppermint and Rainbow were her friends while the two couldn't maintain good friendship, something must have been wrong and should have been fixed. The event that had just happened was actually good to teach Strawberry a bit of reality, and I hoped she could learn the lesson well although I actually doubted it.

"I guess it's time for me to go," Rainbow said, putting off her costume.

"Rainbow, no...!" Strawberry said.

"Please don't go..." Angel said.

"We all like you," Orange said.

"Thank you all, but I don't want to get in the way. And it seems I'm destined to be a traveller after all," Rainbow replied. "And please don't keep any ill-feelings towards Peppermint after I go. It's not her fault at all."

After saying those, Rainbow walked away to her boat which was docked on a river not far from Strawberry's house. Everyone else followed her, and watched in silence as the boat sailed away. Everyone waved their hands in tears, saying their final farewell, and kept looking at the boat until it disappeared into the horizon.

Everybody went home after that, and I could feel that they were mourning over what had just happened. I was afraid of something that might happen later, which was Peppermint losing all her friends because of what she had just done, despite Rainbow's final message. I knew and agreed with Rainbow that friendship couldn't be forced between some people, but it seemed that everyone else were still yet to learn about reality, especially Strawberry. I felt this would have a chain reaction which might ruin everyone's friendship towards each other, and something must be done.

That night, I spent all the time I had to work on another device. Because the device would function on something which was somewhat against one thing Rainbow had said, the work was indeed very difficult, much harder than any other devices I had ever made. I finished the new device when the sun was already rising, which meant I had spent the night without sleep. But the plan must go on so I immediately left my house.

Later, I arrived at Peppermint's house and knocked on the door. Soon she opened the door and a conversation started.

She had a brief silence and then while facing away from me she said, "That's good,"

"Are you happy with it?" I asked.

Still facing away and with a brief silence before the sentence, she answered, "Yes, of course. That weird kid is gone, and that is the happiest thing in my life,"

"Are you sure on your answer? Is it really what comes from your heart?" I still asked.

Still facing away and with a longer silence coming first, she answered, "Why you keep asking? Of course it is!"

"The way you answer does not sound so," I remarked. There was a silence for a few minutes.

"She was sorta different the first time I saw her, and it kinda scared me," she finally started to speak.

"Is that so?" I asked.

"Yeah... The way she speaks, living in a boat, so many colors on her outfit, tilted belt, and everything! All those things kinda scared me, and made me want her to go away!" she said, finally turning around facing me. "But... But... Later I realized that her differences were actually not things to be scared of. I started to like her because of those differences..."

As she said those, she also started sobbing. Then, she continued.

"That night, I couldn't sleep because I felt guilty. I wanted to apologize to her, but I didn't know what to say. Then, the next morning an invitation came and I thought that would be a good chance..." she said.

"Then why you didn't?" I asked.

"...How do you feel when someone tells you to do something, while you were already doing exactly the thing?" she asked me.

"Well... I would feel kinda... insulted I think," I answered. "Oh!"

"You realized it huh?" she remarked my last word.

"Strawberry's plan insulted you..." I said.

"Exactly, and I think you know what happened next..." she said. "Now I don't know what to do, and I don't even know if everyone will forgive me..."

"Why wouldn't we?" a voice said from the door. The door then opened and we saw Strawberry, Angel, Orange, Ginger, and Blueberry coming in.

"Huh? You all were listening?" Peppermint asked.

"Hmm, yeah. All words from the beginning," Blueberry answered.

"It was Blackberry who brought us here. Yep, he did," Ginger said.

"We all are friends and will always be," Strawberry said. "I'm sorry about what happened. I hope you will forgive me too."

All in all, I had saved the circle of friendship within everyone there, without using the device I had just made which I had named Inner Heart. Its shape was like a gun but much smaller than Replicator, and anyone shot by its pink laser would speak from the deepest depth of the heart. I had thought I had to use it to seek the truth within Peppermint's steel heart, but in the end I hadn't. The next thing that happened there were everyone having a big group hug, although that had to end because someone remembered about something.

"What about Rainbow?" Orange asked. "We need her to come back and stay."

"And I need to apologize to her, but it seems it's already too late..." Peppermint said.

It was not a problem, because I had Time Remote Mark II in my pocket, and it was in perfect working order.

Whoa, this Peppermint Fizz can be so mean sometimes! Yep, mean... sometimes. But not always, am I right? She's a good girl after all, am I right again? Somewhere deep inside.

So you said this chapter didn't end like the original episode. (However I just noticed there is Chapter 14b too. I think you should have named this chapter as 14a to be consequent. Like in the case of Chapter 7a.) You made me hell curious how does the original episode end then. Fortunately, I'll also receive it on DVD in about a week. I was thinking whether the original episode end with Peppermint keeping her opinion and Rainbow sailing away for a long time. (It's sure she returns someday after all.) But I find it unlikely that an SSC episode has a sad end, so maybe I'm not guessing well.

I think I should suspend reading your journal at this point. Previously I said it doesn't contain too many spoilers, and I'm not so sensitive about spoilers in general - usually I take spoilers as recommendations to watch something - there was an occasion when someone has told me the plot of a movie from the beginning to the end in details, and then I watched that movie exactly because of that reason. But many small things make a big one, and it also applies to spoilers. For example it is impressive how much is revealed of The Sweet Dreams Movie I watched yesterday. (I confess I've downloaded it - I had no other option since it's not released here, and the American releases are region-protected, all in all it would take too much of fuss to manage to acquire and watch the DVD.) Moreover, when I started to read your journal, I didn't expect to get a chance to actually watch SSC episodes in the near future, and it would be different to watch the episodes after a long time has passed since I read about them; but meanwhile I managed to buy some DVDs after all.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie, and sure I'll like the episodes even if I already know much of their stories. But maybe it would be still better to watch the episodes without more knowledge about them. Though I confess I don't think I can resist to continue reading this journal.

Anyway, it was mentioned earlier how accurately you render the characters. Well, as finally I've seen the movie, in which Lemon Meringue and Raspberry Torte had significant roles, I can tell that your Lemon and Raspberry act exactly alike the official ones.

Uhh, were you quoting Ginger's line from a certain episode? Can't remember if she has ever said that.

*EPISODE SPOILER*

In the official episode Peppermint admits her mistake and accept Rainbow at the costume party scene. The episode ends there with Peppermint and Rainbow hugging each other.

*END OF SPOILER*

As for why this chapter doesn't have the letter 'a', it was because 14b was not meant to exist. I planned the kids to teleport to Rainbow's boat, have Peppermint apologize, and successfully convince Rainbow to return to Strawberryland. All those actions were planned to be 'off-journal' with chapter 15 starting by briefly mentioning the said success and then moving on with a new story.

However, Prudie commented something along the line of, "That means they're off into a new adventure! Make sure to get Rainbow back because Strawberryland would be not the same without her!" Prudie, do you still remember your entire comments here?

That comment gave me the urge to write a continuation. However, my notepad has already advanced to chapter 19 by then, and I didn't want to re-number the chapters so I named the extra chapter "14b" with the story expanded to have a chapter with decent length. Still kinda short, though.

Quote:Anyway, it was mentioned earlier how accurately you render the characters. Well, as finally I've seen the movie, in which Lemon Meringue and Raspberry Torte had significant roles, I can tell that your Lemon and Raspberry act exactly alike the official ones.